The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business has recommended that there should be no changes to the Groceries Order, which bans below-cost-selling.
In a report on the groceries sector, published this afternoon, the committee also stated that the cap on the size of supermarkets should be retained.
The Chairman of the Joint Committee, Donie Cassidy, said changes to the cap could result in the country's towns becoming wildernesses as supermarkets are relocated to the outskirts of towns.
The committee recommended that any future changes to the cap should not be made by ministerial order but through new legislation passed by the Oireachtas.
Overall the committee found that the price of groceries is between 5-15% dearer in the Republic than in Northern Ireland and Britain.
This was blamed on the high cost of overheads such as insurance, wages and waste disposal.
